In 1980 I produced the first live broadcasts over the new NPR satellite system. They were chamber music from the Spoleto Festival in Charleston S.C. The chain was as follows-Schoeps single point stereo mic to Studer 169 console (thanks Bruno Hochstrasser) to a pair of 15khz Marti's with DBX encoding, to the input of the ATT microwave to Columbia where the uplink was located. The Marti's were my backup as the the equalized lines from the Dock Street Theatre had been degraded by water in the lines (typical Charleston flooding) At the Columbia uplink, the signal from the ATT decoders were fed to the modulator for the satellite system. I was listening to the signal off air from my station, WSCI. It was pretty poor. In hindsight I should have used JVC digital encoding units which turned PCM into black and white video. This would have allowed a video loop from the venue all the way to the satellite modulators. We live and learn. The next time I attempted something of this nature we had a portable uplink fed directly from the console. I wish I had worked for the BBC, those folks know how to do it right. Even their streaming audio is excellent and IMHO the best in the world. Regards

Even if some of their products were incorrectly attributed to them, such as the 2-by-1 loudspeaker format. Historically, this is incorrect, as people like JBL were using it for many years before the name was even coined, but it is a fact that BBC's embracing of it gave rise to quite a few MOST memorable Brtisih speakers, such as the Spendor BC3.

You could always count on Beeb to put quality up first. I hear this has changed, though.

Try it on BBC i player . Reading the spec the other day it claimed VHS quality via old fashioned telephone cables when being conceived . It is a slight grade below our usual SD service ( DivX standard I would say ) and better than VHS . I have the i player through my TV . Within 10 minutes I usually adapt to the quality and would say it approaches SD .

I often find BBC 4 SD better than many HD programs . Sound is usually good . HD TV seems to be espeacailly good with 1970's films that somehow are better than ever seen before . SD of Star Trek next generation far better than before , it was below VHS I would say on analogue TV . Some effort is being made and the master tapes obviously were to a higher standard than seen in the past .

I have watched BBC on Belgium cable . The sound was like AM radio only less coherent .

Thanks for the link, Nigel, but it's too lenghthy to follow up, and besides, I do not insist tham my amp be able to work steady state into 1 Ohm, just that it is capable of riding out peaks into 1 Ohm. My steady state requirements stop at 1.8 Ohms, when my protection circuit activates and starts to steal current from the driver circuits.

I never learnt how far is Wayne prepared to go with his doubling down, you have to ask him that. Perhaps 0.5 Ohms, that should be good enough for a welding machine? :-))))))

Easy there D ...

Had a friend over this afternoon lambasting me the same way , well until he did some listening unfortunately I would love to make it 4 ohm , but the further away you get from the natural resistance off the foil you lose . 1 ohm was the best compromise for most amplifiers , .8 is best so a 1 ohm purpose built amp is still the way to go .

D'Agostino did suggest driving it at .5 with the Krell and I may End up doing so, cannot commit the time at the moment as it will entail a total rework of xover.

In the past the BBC was responsible for the whole chain from production to transmission, so quality was high. Now they simply do the switching in the middle. "Producer Choice" means they buy in programmes from independents, and the distribution and transmission has been contracted out. Quality and reliability has fallen, but the politicians, lawyers and accountants are happy because there is more 'rent' to be extracted.

Reading old BBC engineering notes is pure joy . They come over as gifted amateurs , obvious not as they designed highly complex devices .

I always remember phoning Radio Oxford one day for some advice , I was about 20 . I got the broadcaster Mr Henry Aubrey-Fletcher who turned out to be a fully trained sound engineer . I described how the piano sounds underwater when recording at the town hall . He described to me how the BBC do it and I never looked back . His best advice was to use string as suspension and have extra pieces to get position . He insisted the AKG mics I was using were fine and technique more important . His advice was if allowed position the mics above the conductors head as it is a uniquely correct position . He then said you will get some swearing . His big point was the swearing would be reason enough to buy better mics .

The problem he indicated is that although the town hall is massive it will still transmit the thumping of the piano through the floor . My friend John will say about ground wave reflection and using sound absorbing mats . Such a nice and helpful man Mr HAF . He also said get some Calrecs when possible . BBC used 6 usually , often only 2 used . Also a Coles ribbon for solo instruments . He went on to say the 6 mic solution was often used for unknown venues as it would allow quick results ( a midday broadcast ) .